This invention relates generally to information processing in a network environment, and more particularly, this invention relates to an improved web browser method and system for identifying, categorizing, and displaying preferred web site links over a network.
The World Wide Web (WWW), or “web”, has become a well-known and versatile feature of the Internet. The web comprises many files or pages of information, distributed across many different servers. Each page is identified by an individual address or “Universal Resource Locator (URL)” which, in turn, denotes both a server machine and a particular file or page on that machine. There may be many pages or URLs resident on a single server.
Typically, to utilize the web, a user runs a computer program called a web browser on a client computer system such as a personal computer. Examples of browser programs on the market include Microsoft Internet Explorer (™) and Netscape Navigator (™). The user interacts with the web browser to select a particular URL. The interaction causes the browser to send a request for the URL-identified page or file to the URL-identified server. Typically, the server responds to the request by retrieving the requested page and transmitting the data back to the requesting client utilizing hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP), a well known protocol in the art. The page received by the client is displayed to the user on the client machine. The client may also cause the server to launch an application, such as a search engine, to search for web pages relating to particular topics.
Web pages are typically formatted in accordance with a computer programming language known as hypertext markup language (HTML). Thus, a typical web page includes text together with embedded formatting commands, referred to as tags, that can be employed to control font style, font size, layout features, etc. The web browser parses the HTML script in order to display the text in accordance with the specified format. In addition, an HTML page may also contain a reference, in terms of another URL, to a portion of multimedia data such as an image, video segment, or audio file. The web browser responds to such a reference by retrieving and displaying or playing the multimedia data. Alternatively, the multimedia data may reside on its own web page, without surround HTML text.
Most web pages also contain one or more references to other web pages, which need not reside on the same server as the original page. Such references may be activated by the user selecting particular locations on the screen, typically by clicking a mouse control button. These references or locations are known as hyperlinks, and are typically flagged by the web browser in a particular manner such as through the use of color coding the text link. If a user selects the hyperlinked text, then the referenced page is retrieved and replaces the currently displayed page.
Newer browser technology has extended the traditional client/server technology of requesting and receiving web pages to now include more advanced features. Information previously incapable of being displayed via a browser can now usually be presented with the assistance of a plug in application that runs on top of the browser program. Other recent developments in web technology include packaged suites of well-known applications software and groupware tools which provide “fall service” web computing capabilities. These enhancements have already proven themselves in the business community where business enterprises and their trading partners enjoy extensive collaboration and communication capabilities.
One drawback to web technology, however, relates to the growing number of web sites and the correlated searching difficulties encountered by web users. To access a desired web site, a user must remember either the web site name as it is registered in the domain name registry (i.e., exact spelling and punctuation), or remember the URL address to which the name belongs.
Another major drawback is the sometimes overwhelming sea of information which an ill-planned web search can return. Conducting carefully executed searches requires some boolean-based search knowledge, particularly for time-pressured web users, before meaningful and substantive information can be found. Search engines with their limited “keyword” and boolean operator approach can further aggravate an inexperienced web surfer. Thousands of documents and links containing a selected key word are flagged and displayed by the search engine, often resulting in slow information retrieval, too much information, or the wrong information. In fact, savvy web site proprietors have been known to strategically and purposefully interpose popular keywords into their web pages in order to increase their site's visibility and web presence by ensuring that their web sites will be picked up during a search. Thus, many searches lead to information which has no actual or logical connection to the keyword searched.
Because of the difficulties in web searching recited above, it is no wonder that commercial software developers incorporate ‘bookmarking’ and ‘favorites’ tools into their products to assist the user in saving, and later retrieving, useful web sites. Bookmarks or favorites are shortcuts to pages found on the Internet. While surfing, a user can instantly bookmark a site, linking its corresponding URL to a specified location on the user's PC.
A growing number of businesses today are setting up shop online and opting for the convenience that e-commerce and online business-to-business (B2B) activities offer. Traditional communications channels such as telephone, facsimile, mail, and person-to-person are quickly being replaced by e-commerce and the corporate web site. As the number of web sites and online B2B transactions increase, it logically follows that web searching activities will continue to increase as well. As indicated above, searching the web can result in employees having to sift through vast numbers of web sites. Larger companies with geographically scattered offices may be especially affected where redundancies in searches are likely, resulting in wasted time and human resources. Bookmarking a useful web site may be beneficial to one employee who saves this web site link in a personalized file storage location. However, other employees who may have an interest in this web site will have no knowledge of it and thus, will not benefit from it. Employees may forward or email these links back and forth to other employees, but this haphazard approach to sharing information is inefficient, as the data has no central storage location and is not organized in any useful fashion.
A process is therefore required that improves access to useful web sites by allowing users to share the information quickly via a desktop icon or simple keyboard selection.